MediaTek has been on a roll the entire 2025. The Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company had its hands full with deals with Nvidia and Google. It also announced its brand new 2nm chip with TSMC, which will debut this year. 2026 is set to be a pivotal year for the chip designer as it plans to lock horns with competitors like Qualcomm.
Be it PC, mobile, or automobiles, MediaTek is going all in this year. We approached MediaTek India’s Managing Director, Anku Jain, to try and understand what role India will play this year in the tech company’s roadmap for growth and in the overall semiconductor super cycle. We also enquired about MediaTek's latest tech, such as the new Dimensity Auto Cockpit Platform and its 2nm ambitions. Here are the excerpts.
We saw a democratisation of NPU power in 2025, with AI features trickling down to the Dimensity 7000 and 8000 series. For the year ahead, is the goal to bring Flagship AI to the budget segment in India, or will we see a distinct tiering of AI capabilities, i.e., emphasis on flagship chips like Dimensity 9400 and 9500? MediaTek has proved its mettle with the new Dimensity 9500 in phones such as the Vivo X300 Pro and the X9 Pro. Will this success translate into an improved emphasis on flagship chips?
Anku: MediaTek sees India as a critical market and a burgeoning hub for innovation, particularly in chip design and software. The focus continues to be on leveraging India's strengths in R&D and software development. We want to have the entire range available because that gives the OEM partners a choice, what they want to use for their target segment, and that strategy will continue.
MediaTek has also invested USD 4.1 billion in R&D to strengthen our global technology leadership, to boost 5G and AI Innovation. This rapid development of 5G in India is a factor that will promote innovation and advanced connectivity, investing in India's 5G and AI potential.
MediaTek’s direction is to both deepen flagship AI leadership with platforms like Dimensity 9400/9500 and to aggressively democratise meaningful on-device AI into the affordable and upper mid segments, rather than keeping advanced AI experiences locked only to ultra premium phones. We have already taken a big step by bringing strong NPUs into the Dimensity 7000 and 8000 series, enabling AI features in more affordable and upper‑mid smartphones rather than only in flagships.
In fact, many AI-first smartphones from OEMs like Tecno already use MediaTek’s NPUs for some on-device AI operations. There are devices that are also found in the budget or affordable segment, for example being the LAVA Agni 4, which uses a Dimensity 8350-class SoC with an integrated AI processor. MediaTek has also seen strong on-device applications in other devices using Dimensity 8350 and 8450 SoCs as well.
MediaTek is already working on chipsets that can power generative AI in a hybrid on‑device cloud model for more affordable smartphones. At the same time, we are sharpening flagship differentiation with platforms like Dimensity 9500, which combine high-performance CPU/GPU, advanced NPUs and console-grade gaming to redefine top-end mobile AI and imaging experiences.
The forward‑looking goal is for future budget and mid‑tier phones to handle more powerful, multimodal LLMs and agents locally with less friction, using more efficient NPUs, improved memory architectures and model optimisation, so that AI‑driven experiences like real‑time translation, summarisation or creative tools can feel “flagship‑grade” even on affordable devices in India.
2025 was arguably the year generative AI went local on our devices. As we look at the year ahead, do you see the conversation shifting from "Can the chip run AI?" to "How efficiently can it run AI?" How is MediaTek preparing to handle the thermal and battery challenges of next-gen multimodal AI agents?
Anku: MediaTek is always bringing the best of technologies and is constantly setting new standards in on-device AI, console-class gaming and power efficiency. MediaTek Dimensity 9500 sets an example as it is engineered to super-charge the next wave of flagship 5G smartphones. At the heart of this leap lies MediaTek’s integrated compute-in-memory architecture powering a super-efficient NPU.
Looking ahead, MediaTek’s upcoming 2nm chip tapeouts mark a major step in efficiency and compute density. From a power and performance-per-watt standpoint, 2nm is the way forward, and we are one of the few companies to have that going for us in 2026, allowing more transistors to operate at lower voltages while generating less heat. Combined with ongoing advances in expanded cache sizes and faster instruction sets, MediaTek is ensuring that more data is stored closer to the CPU, translating to faster app launches, reduced latency, and a more fluid AI experience.
Together, these innovations underscore how MediaTek continues to bring the best of silicon and system technologies to every generation of devices, redefining what it means to run AI efficiently, right at the edge.
The Dimensity Auto platform gained significant traction in 2025. With the Indian EV market maturing rapidly, what is your outlook for 2026? Do you foresee the 'Smart Cockpit' becoming a standard feature even in mass-market Indian cars, and how is MediaTek enabling that cost structure?
Anku: MediaTek is sharpening its focus on the automotive sector in India, projecting that the country will contribute 20% of its global automotive deployments over the next five years, according to senior company officials. Dimensity Automotive portfolio brings together advanced AI, high energy efficiency, robust security, and industry-leading connectivity, closely with OEMs to deliver immersive, advanced in-vehicle user experiences to reach AI AI-defined cockpit with cybersecurity capabilities and enhanced connectivity.
In India, MediaTek has Tata Motors, JSW MG Motor India and Skoda among its automotive clients. Globally, the company supplies chipsets to Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, BMW, and Audi, among others. EV two-wheeler makers in India have started using the company's AI-enabled chips for infotainment systems. The rising demand for AI-powered cockpit infotainment across segments in India is one of the key aspects that make it strategically important for MediaTek.
Your partnership with NVIDIA was a major talking point in 2025. As we look forward, how does the Indian R&D team contribute to this automotive segment?
Anku: At the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition 2025, MediaTek announced its flagship Dimensity Auto Cockpit Platform C-X1 and Dimensity Auto Connect MT2739. MediaTek and its ecosystem partners showcased the future of intelligent driving experiences through generative AI-enhanced cockpit and agentic AI applications.
These innovations integrate state-of-the-art AI and multimedia technologies into next-generation autonomous vehicles, delivering a comprehensive industry solution. The Dimensity Auto Cockpit Platform C-X1 SoC utilises the most advanced 3nm manufacturing process. It integrates the NVIDIA Blackwell GPU and a deep learning accelerator, leveraging the advantages of an end-to-end AI ecosystem to accelerate the in-vehicle operation of multimodal large language models (LLMs).
MediaTek sees a significant opportunity in India's automotive sector, driven by a vast AI talent pool and electric vehicle manufacturers' eagerness to adopt artificial intelligence and powerful computing. Various OEMs are very interested in AI and want to try their best to adapt to the offloads in their vehicles. As India’s automotive industry embraces connectivity, electrification, and intelligent systems, MediaTek will keep on contributing foundational technology for the next generation of vehicles.
We have seen a massive demand for semiconductor talent in India over the last 12 months. As a leader in this space, what is your strategy for the year ahead regarding talent acquisition?
Anku: MediaTek actively undertakes a wide range of chip design and development activities in India through its two major R&D centres located in Noida (Delhi NCR) and Bengaluru. These centres serve as an integral extension of our global R&D network, working in close collaboration with our international teams. Our Indian operations contribute across all the verticals that MediaTek is actively involved in, such as smartphones, smart TVs, connectivity, automotive, IOT, and Chromebooks.
Our Noida facility focuses primarily on software design, including wireless communications, modem software, and Android system software. And Bengaluru centre, which is MediaTek’s second major facility in India, engages in a mix of both software and hardware design (chip design). Together, these centres play an important role in driving innovation and contributing to MediaTek’s global product portfolio.
We are actively expanding our talent pool in India through a mix of campus recruitment and lateral hiring. In the Delhi NCR region, our hiring efforts are focused on protocol stack development and connectivity solutions. More broadly, we are seeking skilled technical professionals with expertise in semiconductor design, embedded systems, AI, connectivity solutions, and software development to support our growing R&D initiatives and strengthen our innovation capabilities."
2025 can be termed as the year of Integration, where AI, 5G, and hardware merged together. What is your one-word theme for MediaTek in 2026, and why?
Anku: One Word Theme- Innovation
2026 is centred on innovation. At MediaTek, we aim to empower device makers and ecosystem partners with innovative chipsets and AI-driven capabilities that push the boundaries of what’s possible, enabling smarter, more connected and transformative technology experiences.
If we were to sit for an interview exactly one year from now, what headline would you want to describe MediaTek's position in India?
Anku: MediaTek’s AI vision from Edge to Cloud is shaping the future of AI with cutting-edge Connectivity, Computing, and Multimedia Tech
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